Explore every inch of ‘Outlander’ with this 360 degree deleted scene

Explore every inch of ‘Outlander’ with this 360 degree deleted scene

If you’ve always dreamed of stepping onto the set of Outlander, Starz and Mashable have just the ticket: an exclusive deleted scene from Season 3, episode 11, filmed with 360 degree cameras to allow you to explore every inch of the Artemis — the gorgeous full-scale ship that’s currently carrying Claire and Jamie Fraser to Jamaica.

Even better, you get a guided tour from Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan, who are happy to channel their inner pirates while showing off the sprawling South Africa studio that doubles for the Caribbean in the back half of Season 3.

If you take advantage of the 360 scope of the video, you’ll catch a glimpse of the show’s other featured vessel, the Porpoise, along with the various wind machines and green screens that help replicate the open sea.

And, just in case you want to act out your own seafaring adventure at home, Balfe and Heughan also kindly demonstrate the oldStar Trek trick of throwing themselves around the deck while the camera sways in order to simulate movement (aka “gimbaling”), just to give you some extra bang for your buck.

But if you just want to bask in the joy of seeing Claire and Jamie reunited and enjoying some PDA after Claire was kidnapped and stranded on a remote island, you’ll appreciate the deleted final scene from episode 311, in which our heroes catch sight of Jamaica for the first time, bringing them one step closer to finding Young Ian.

Will they succeed? You’ll have to tune in to Starz on Sunday at 8 p.m. to find out.

Some include interesting new developments that hint at where Season 2’s plot will go:

Simon Quarterman (left), Thandie Newton (right)

Image: hbo

Here we see Maeve with her human capture, as we’ve seen bits of in the trailer.

Maev will undoubtedly steal the show again

Image: HBO

But something we haven’t seen much of yet is evidence that Maeve goes back to Westworld. Presuming this isn’t a flashback, we’ll see her in the new host-ruled park again.

Talulah Riley makes a surprise return

Image: hbo

Talulah Riley had a pretty minimal role in Season 1 as the cheerful host who greeted guests during the flashback scenes. But Deadline reported that she would be taking on a bigger, lead role in Season 2: “She will prove to be one of the last faces many guests will ever see.”

Welp, now we know why ‘Good Girls Revolt’ was canceled

Amazon has been mum about how it makes many of its (sometimes questionable) entertainment programming decisions. Now, based on leaked internal documents, it looks like the answer is cold hard cash.

Reuters has acquired Amazon financial information that for the first time provides insight into just how profitable and widely watched Amazon’s Prime Originals and streaming service are. Significantly, the documents shed light on the financial strategy of Prime Originals — specifically, how Amazon’s entertainment venture contributes to the growth of its Prime subscriber base, and overall subscription business profitability.

Amazon has never released statistics on its total Prime subscriber numbers. But according to the documents, Amazon Prime has a total U.S. audience of about 26 million viewers, which includes its originals as well as shows it licenses from other companies.

Prime Originals’ top television shows drove 5 million new Prime subscriptions by early 2017, according to the leaked documents. Reuters notes that using entertainment programming to draw customers to a Prime subscription is a key proponent of Amazon’s business strategy, a strategy that Jeff Bezos spoke to at a 2016 technology conference. Bezos said at the same conference that users who come to Prime through entertainment are more likely to convert to full-fledged subscriptions through free trials, renew subscriptions annually at higher rates, and even buy more products. So a Prime subscriber drawn in through Originals programming is a valuable one.

And Amazon knows it.

The documents show that Amazon calculates a direct return on investment for each show, based on what it costs to produce versus how many Prime subscriptions it drives. For example, The Man in the High Castle cost $72 million to produce and market, but drove 1.15 million new Prime subscribers. That comes out to a cost of $63 per new Prime subscriber — which is far less than the annual Prime fee of $99. Cha-ching!

The show Good Girls Revolt didn’t achieve similar success in converting viewers to subscribers. It cost $81 million to produce, but only drove 52,000 “first streams” (i.e. new viewers) on Amazon. That made its cost per new customer $1,560 — more than ten times the cost of a one year prime subscription.

Guess which show is still on the air.

(It’s ‘High Castle‘ — Good Girls Revolt was canceled after its first season despite a massive outcry from fans. Now, we know a bit more about why).

Reuters provides a handy graph to illustrate the direct comparison between a show’s overall cost, and its cost per new subscriber.

Critics have questioned Amazon’s programming decisions, saying at times that they were driven by sexism, at times that it was the experiment of a Hollywood outsider. But these financials show that there is indeed a method to Amazon’s madness.

However, is there a downside to evaluating shows based on the new viewers they bring in, as opposed to how well they’re satisfying existing customers? The documents don’t reveal whether this is part of the cancel vs. renew equation. But for loyal Amazon subscribers and viewers, it’s not a good look.

Whether you approve of Amazon’s apparent new viewer-to-subscriber business strategy, one thing’s for sure: Amazon’s entertainment venture is paying off, big time.

We’re already invested in the ‘Rise’ companion web series

NBC’s Rise — a new show about a group of high school students putting on a musical and their trials and tribulations — is about the kids who are stars. The companion web series, however, focuses on an entirely different part of high school theater: The understudies.

The Understudies‘ digital videos will follow students not at the forefront of Stanton High School’s production of Spring Awakening. Though we find out about the group through Michael (Ellie Desautels), we’ve already got a core cast of stage-starved misfits ready to charm.

The first installment of Understudies isn’t super subtle, focusing mainly on one girl who thinks she deserves a lead in the musical because she put in time with the teacher and did tech for a whole year (tech ≠ acting, so not sure where that experience was going). Instead of plotting any ill will against the main leads, the understudies hang out, bond, and play a game of Never Have I Ever.

The Understudies will total nine episodes throughout Rise‘s first season. Who knows, if the show gets renewed, some of them may get a shot at a lead.